Bob Rae visited the National Post offices a few years ago and I asked him then about his switch from the NDP to the Liberals. How could he be Premier of the province representing one party but run for a different party federally?

He responded that the experience of government had changed his views. Being in office forced him to consider the interests of both workers and their employers, he said. One couldn’t govern effectively while beholden to large unions.

Twenty years later, Dalton McGuinty appears to have come to the same conclusion. And the unions, as they were with Mr. Rae, are determined to see the Premier punted from office for such heresy.

The McGuinty government made good on its budget promise to prevent wage increases for public-sector workers on Wednesday, when Finance Minister Dwight Duncan announced draft legislation that gives the Liberals the right to set conditions for future union contracts and to override bargained contracts that do not meet those conditions. The legislation mirrors the new law put in place for education workers this month that has led to widespread teacher protests and which will be challenged in court as unconstitutional.

On Thursday afternoon, the leaders of Ontario’s largest public-sector unions — and some from the private-sector — held a news conference at a downtown hotel to explain just how displeased they were by this development.

“This is a serious erosion of basic human rights and Charter rights of workers,” said Sid Ryan, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour. “Mr. McGuinty has managed to unite the labour movement like it’s never been united before.”

Perhaps aware that comparisons of the Premier to Mike Harris lack rhetorical punch now that they have been trotted out so often, Mr. Ryan went one further and said Mr. McGuinty “has adopted the policies of Republican governors in the United States” with his blatant “attack on the middle class.”

That’s right: Dalton McGuinty, Republican. The gloves are well and truly off.

Smokey Thomas, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, said the draft bill, which would cover 2,300 bargained contracts affecting close to half a million workers, will be challenged in court, as is the case with the teacher bill. Mr. Thomas said their legal advice is that the laws are unconstitutional because the pre-conditions effectively strip away collective bargaining rights. When it was pointed out that the Liberals have crafted the legislation to take earlier court rulings into account, increasing the chances the laws will be challenge-proof, Mr. Thomas, blunt as always, responded that “they’re not that bright. We like our chances of beating them.”

“To be honest, I don’t think they care if they win or lose in court,” Mr. Thomas said. By the time the challenges are resolved, the Liberals will have either won or lost the next election, he said. “That might sound cynical, but I believe it’s the truth.”

The heated condemnations continued from there. Jenny Ahn of the Canadian Auto Workers said she feared “what McGuinty is doing to tear apart our communities,” though one might reasonably ask how a two-year wage freeze will rip whole towns asunder. Fred Hahn of CUPE vowed that Wednesday’s meeting of more than 40 union leaders was “the beginning of a mass movement” that will get the public to reconsider what it wants in a government. (The short description of that government is one that increases spending and jacks up corporate taxes to pay for it.)

To be honest, I don’t think they care if they win or lose in court. That might sound cynical, but I believe it’s the truth

When the union leaders were asked what they expected this movement to accomplish, “a different government” was the quick answer. Mr. Ryan touted the surprise NDP win in the Kitchener-Waterloo by-election as an example of the might unions could bring. Three weeks ago the NDP played down union impact on Catherine Fife’s win, but on Thursday Mr. Ryan made plain that organized labour brought in “boots on the ground” in K-W. “And boots on the ground win elections,” he said.

Just ask Bob Rae. He was a union-friendly premier who forced cuts upon them in an effort to curb a deficit and the labour movement turned on him. Mr. McGuinty has had a longer run of labour peace than Mr. Rae ever did, buoyed in the early years by a strong economy, but now he is finding that cost cutting turns allies into enemies in a hurry.

“The Liberals have more than pissed off their base,” Mr. Ryan said. Perhaps. When Mr. Rae lost labour, he had no one left. The Liberals must be calculating that they can find support elsewhere. Because in that Toronto conference room on Thursday, there was none.